Back in June, OnePlus launched their new flagship smartphone, the OnePlus 3. I've had an interesting relationship with the OnePlus 3 due to certain decisions that were made regarding its display and some parts of the operating system before the phone initially launched. Since that time, OnePlus has made significant improvements to both of these aspects, and in my follow up piece I concluded that the OnePlus 3 should be considered by all smartphone buyers, even ones who were ready to pay $700 or $800 for a flagship phone from another company.
Earlier this month, OnePlus surprised a number of people in the Android community by launching a successor to the OnePlus 3. This move isn't in line with the yearly cadence that we've come to expect for their smartphones, which makes it all the more interesting. The name of this new phone is the OnePlus 3T, and based on that name one can already see that it represents an evolution of the OnePlus 3 rather than a revolutionary upgrade. As the OnePlus 3's successor, the OnePlus 3T simply serves to update certain aspects of the phone's hardware in order to take advantage of technology improvements that have been made available since the OnePlus 3 was originally developed and released.
This review focuses on the aspects of the OnePlus 3T that differ from its predecessor. Because of that, I recommend reading over my review of the OnePlus 3 if you're interested in other aspects of the phone like the camera quality. Before moving on, I've collected all the specifications for the OnePlus 3 and 3T in the chart below to make it clear which parts have changed and which have remained the same.
OnePlus 3 OnePlus 3T SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 8202 x 2.15GHz Kryo2 x 1.6GHz Kryo624MHz Adreno 530 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8212 x 2.35GHz Kryo2 x 1.6GHz Kryo653MHz Adreno 530 RAM 6GB LPDDR4 Display 5.5" 1920 x 1080 PenTile AMOLED Size / Mass 152.7 x 74.7 x 7.35mm, 158g Battery 3000 mAh 3400 mAh Rear Camera 16MP 1.1 μm Sony IMX298, f/2.0, OIS Front Camera 8MP 1.4 μmSony IMX179, f/2.0 16MP 1.0 µmSamsung S5K3P8, f/2.0 Storage 64GB UFS 2.0 64/128GB UFS 2.0 I/O USB 2.0 Type-C connector, 3.5mm audio Connectivity 802.11a/b/g/n/ac + BT 4.2, USB-C, GPS/GNSS Software Android 6.0.1OxygenOS 3.2.8 Android 6.0.1OxygenOS 3.5.1 Price 64GB399 USD 64GB439 USD439 EUR399 GBP599 CAD 128GB479 USD479 EUR439 GBP639 CAD
For the most part, the OnePlus 3T is the same as the OnePlus 3. The size and mass are both the same, the display is the same, the rear-camera is the same, and the connectivity is the same. Internally OnePlus has made some changes to certain components. The most obvious change is the new SoC, with Snapdragon 820 being replaced with a faster Snapdragon 821 chip, while the RAM remains a healthy 6GB of LPDDR4. The battery capacity has also increased from 3000mAh to 3400mAh, which is a 13% increase without any change in the size or mass of the phone. The last major change is the new front-facing camera, which has moved from the 8MP 1.4µm Sony sensor on the OnePlus 3 to a 16MP 1.0µm Samsung sensor. In addition to the changes across all models, OnePlus has also introduced a 128GB SKU for users who need more storage. All of these changes also come at a higher price, with the 64GB model starting at $439, up from $399, and the 128GB model coming in at $479.
As far as its design goes, the OnePlus 3T is mostly unchanged from its predecessor. I'm quite a fan of the OnePlus 3's design, so I don't feel that there was any need to change it significantly. The relatively thin body and the tapered back design make it far more usable with one hand than other 5.5" smartphones like the Pixel XL or the Moto G4. Being made from a single piece of aluminum, the chassis has none of the seams that the OnePlus One and OnePlus 2 had, and it feels incredibly solid in the hand. Unlike certain other vendors, OnePlus has also taken the time to actually align the various ports and buttons on the sides of the chassis instead of placing them wherever is convenient without any regard for aesthetics or usability.
Beyond the purely physical aspects of the design, I think OnePlus's design decisions regarding the placement of controls also makes the phone easier to use than competing devices. Having been using the OnePlus 3 since launch, I can say with certainty that OnePlus is on the right side of history by putting the volume rocker on the left side of the phone along with a physical switch for toggling notification settings. I also really appreciate having capacitive navigation buttons instead of wasting space on the display with on-screen buttons sitting above a bottom bezel that could easily fit physical ones. Putting the fingerprint scanner on the front of the phone as part of the home button also makes it simple to turn on and unlock the phone, even if it's sitting on a table.
The only aspect of the design that has changed from the OnePlus 3 is the color of the phone. The OnePlus 3 was originally available in a standard silver aluminum finish and later came in a gold finish, while the OnePlus 3T comes in a gunmetal grey finish and a gold finish from the start. The gold finish is only available in a 64GB capacity, while the gunmetal has both a 64GB and a 128GB version. For this review the 128GB gunmetal model was sampled, and I think it's a nice look for the phone. It's certainly not as dark as Apple's black iPhone 7 finish, but it's visibly darker than the OnePlus 3's aluminum and helps to distinguish between the two. I wouldn't have minded if OnePlus had also kept the standard silver finish available, as I think it looked rather nice as well, but I don't think the gunmetal is such a dramatic change in color that users will be bothered by silver being unavailable.
My original review of the OnePlus 3 was somewhat controversial for its display section. At the time it shipped, the OnePlus 3 was set to a fixed color mode that targeted the NTSC color gamut. NTSC in this case refers to the original specification for analog color television in the United States, rather than SMPTE C which was actually more commonly targeted at the time for real equipment due to NTSC coverage not being possible on the CRT displays of the time with an adequate luminance level.
The issue with shipping a gamut other than sRGB as the only color mode on an Android phone is that Android has no color management whatsoever. This means that there's no mechanism for the operating system and its associated frameworks to understand what color space content has been created for, and what color space is used by the actual display on the phone. This means that if the display uses a different gamut than sRGB, the colors in content that targets sRGB will not be properly converted to the display's color space so they can be displayed correctly. For example, if part of an image created in sRGB had component values of RGB (255,0,0) which would make it the most saturated red possible in sRGB, the display would render it as the most saturated red possible in its native color space. This would cause distortion unless the different gamut happened to also use the same CIE XYZ tristimulus value for red.
Regardless of whether your preference is for more saturated colors, or for color accuracy, I think everyone can agree that a device should be able to display colors accurately if the user wants it to. After my review, OnePlus issued an update to all OnePlus 3 units which added an sRGB color mode for accurate color rendering. You can read my follow up piece which went over these changes, but the end result is that the OnePlus 3 went from having one of the most inaccurate smartphone displays to having one with a high degree of accuracy.
The OnePlus 3T uses the same 5.5" 1920x1080 PenTile AMOLED display as the OnePlus 3. It also includes the newest version of OxygenOS, which has made it easier for users to access the different color modes available. While the sRGB mode was originally added to the hidden developer section of the settings app, it now has its own section right in the display settings, which is a great move on OnePlus's part. With how accurate the OnePlus 3's display was, one would hope that the OnePlus 3T will be as good, if not even better.
As always, I've run our standard display workflow on the OnePlus 3T, which examines attributes like peak brightness, greyscale accuracy, saturation accuracy, and color mixture accuracy. Data is collected using an X-Rite i1Pro 2 spectrophotometer and managed using SpectaCal's CalMAN 2016 software.
With the same panel in use, it's not surprising to see that the peak brightness level is essentially equivalent. Using an AMOLED panel means that blacks are almost perfect, leading to a near-infinite contrast ratio in an optimal setting. In practice there's obviously a degree of light from other sources which is reflected by the display, so you don't get a truly infinite contrast ratio, but the black levels are as close to perfect as one can possibly get.
OnePlus 3T in NTSC mode (above) compared to sRGB mode (below)
SpectraCal CalMAN
As expected, the accuracy relative to sRGB is terrible in the default mode which targets the NTSC color gamut. Meanwhile, the sRGB mode is incredibly accurate, with many colors being essentially indistinguishable from the reference shade. The OnePlus 3 already exhibited great accuracy in its sRGB mode, so seeing it pushed even further is surprising. In this case, the gamma is closer to our target of 2.2 at each shade, and the RGB balance for each shade of grey is also more uniform than the OnePlus 3. It's really impossible to say whether this is true of all units. It could be that actually shipping the sRGB mode with the phone has allowed for dedicated calibration in that mode, or this could just be an exceptionally good sample. Either way, when you consider both this and the OnePlus 3's sRGB mode, it's a safe bet that you'll be able to get great accuracy for greyscale shades on OnePlus's latest phones.
OnePlus 3T in NTSC mode (above) compared to sRGB mode (below)
SpectraCal CalMAN
Given that the original NTSC standard is wider than sRGB, the accuracy is quite poor in the default mode. Like the greyscale test, turning on the sRGB color mode enables a level of accuracy that few other smartphones can match. Technically you can see the difference between the colors if you place them directly beside some object showing the true reference shade, but realistically even creative professionals that need a high level of color accuracy would be thrilled by a display calibrated as well as the one on the OnePlus 3T.
OnePlus 3T in NTSC mode (above) compared to sRGB mode (below)
SpectraCal CalMAN
The GretagMacbeth ColorChecker test produces the same sort of result as the separate greyscale and saturation tests. This test effectively measures if both of those two tests produced good results, as to accurately render color mixtures you need to have an accurate gamma and white balance, as well as accurate primary and secondary color rendering. In the standard mode the accuracy is poor, and in the sRGB mode it's great.
As far as color accuracy goes, there's honestly nothing to complain about on the OnePlus 3T when you put it in its sRGB mode. I still disagree with the default mode being severely inaccurate and targeting a gamut that isn't used anywhere, but OnePlus has done a great job with making the settings accessible for users. They're no longer buried inside the hidden developer section of the settings app, and OnePlus has even highlighted it in their reviewers guide which indicates to me that they understand the value of giving users the choice of whatever color mode they'd like, including the option to have accurate colors for situations that demand it.
While the OnePlus 3's display is certainly outstanding as far as accuracy is concerned, I do feel that it's worth mentioning again how the sharpness of a 401ppi PenTile display is not the same as that of a 401ppi LCD display. As far as text rendering goes, the OnePlus 3 and 3T are clearly not as sharp as the OnePlus One and OnePlus 2. I would even say that text rendering is not as good as an RGB LCD in the 300-350ppi range, such as the ones Apple uses on the smaller iPhone models. This is the result of two factors, with the first being the lacking red and blue subpixels to be used in rendering what's on the screen, and the second being the actual subpixels themselves. The subpixel array is irregular due to the diamond-shaped groupings of subpixels, and the subpixels are not of a uniform shape or size either. This makes the pattern itself less suitable than an RGB display for rendering text, as you get irregular aliasing on the edges where the subpixels are not arranged in a straig ht line.
While I would love if OnePlus could ship a 1440p AMOLED display on the OnePlus 3T, such a panel would be too expensive to fit into the price point OnePlus is targeting. I suppose that my main disappointment is that even with the high level of accuracy on the OnePlus 3T's AMOLED display, if OnePlus were to ship the phone using the original LCD display from the OnePlus One tuned to this level of accuracy it would certainly be a better display overall. Peak brightness would be higher, text would be sharper, and you wouldn't have AMOLED's off-angle hue shift.
In the end, I still think the OnePlus 3 and 3T have very good displays, and they are greatly improved compared to the OnePlus One and OnePlus 2 in many ways. My only real complaint is that some areas have also regressed compared to the first two OnePlus phones. When you consider where OnePlus sits in the smartphone market as far as price and specs are concerned, you're still getting a great display for your money, and if you want a phone with a 5.5" 1440p AMOLED panel it's going to cost considerably more. As of right now I'm just skeptical that AMOLED is the right way to go for larger devices in the $400 range until we can get 1440p PenTile panels or 1080p RGB ones.
One of the key internal changes that the OnePlus 3T brings to the table is a move from Snapdragon 820 to 821. At a high level, Snapdragon 821 is very similar to 820, and in the case of the OnePlus 3T it's really differentiated by its higher peak frequencies for the CPU and the GPU. Both have four of Qualcomm's Kryo cores in a 2 + 2 cluster configuration, and both use Qualcomm's Adreno 530 GPU. In the OnePlus 3 the performance cluster on the CPU had a peak frequency of 2.15GHz, which is brought up to 2.35GHz on the OnePlus 3T. On paper, this gives a performance improvement of roughly 10%, which is also what Qualcomm states in their marketing materials.
PCMark is a test that the OnePlus 3 performed exceptionally well in. This was due not only to the use of Snapdragon 820, but to software optimizations that OnePlus had made to the OS and the Android Runtime as well. The OnePlus 3T continues this trend, and provides performance improvements across the board. The writing and photo editing tests are the most interesting of the group, as these are tests where software optimizations helped the OnePlus 3 to pull ahead of other competing devices, and the OnePlus 3T pulls ahead even further. It bests the Huawei Mate 8 in the writing test to become the fastest device on record, and the photo editing test improves over the OnePlus 3 which was still the fastest device in the test up until now.
The OnePlus 3T's JavaScript performance benefits from improvements that Google has made in Chrome 54, as well as the increase in peak CPU frequency compared to the OnePlus 3. In the interest of having a fair comparison, I've updated the OnePlus 3's results using the latest version of Chrome so it can also take advantage of optimizations that have been made.
Kraken and WebXPRT 2015 both demonstrate the OnePlus 3T's improved JavaScript performance. The gap is actually a bit larger than one might expect from a 10% increase in CPU frequency, and this could simply be the result of other changes made to the operating system in the newer version of OxygenOS, or changes to the DVFS settings that have been made alongside the change in SoC. Jetstream shows a smaller improvement, but it's in line with what you'd expect to see from the CPU bump.
Ultimately, Snapdragon 821 doesn't come with any mind-blowing performance improvements for CPU-bound applications, but the update does keep OnePlus on par with the competition, and allows them to take advantage of improvements in efficiency and errata fixes in addition to a modest performance uplift. Certain parts of the PCMark test also indicate that the 3T comes with additional improvements at the software level, which will hopefully make their way to the OnePlus 3 with the next major update to OxygenOS, but for now are something you only get on the OnePlus 3T.
Along with the 10% increase in peak CPU clock speeds, the version of Snapdragon 821 in the OnePlus 3T also increases the peak GPU frequency to 653MHz, up from 624MHz in the OnePlus 3. This is a relatively modest improvement, so the corresponding increase in performance will also be rather modest as well. In the interest of merely verifying that performance has improved as expected, I've run 3DMark Sling Shot and GFXBench Car Chase on the OnePlus 3T.
The 3DMark graphics test actually doesn't see much of an improvement on the OnePlus 3T. It may be that I simply got an exceptionally good score on the OnePlus 3, but it is interesting to see such a large gap in the physics test, which should favor the OnePlus 3T with its higher-clocked CPU cores.
In GFXBench Car Chase the OnePlus 3T shows a performance uplift of around 10% compared to the OnePlus 3. This is slightly higher than expected, but due to the truncation of results in the latest GFXBench this may be slightly exaggerated, which tends to happen when comparing devices that differ in performance by only one or two frames per second.
In our recent review of the Pixel XL one of the problems we ran into was that AndroBench had been broken by the adoption of file-based encryption (FBE) in Android Nougat. AndroBench is the benchmark we use to measure storage performance, and since that time it has been updated with a new version that works on devices that use FBE. However, the results are not comparable to results from AndroBench 4, so going forward we will be using the AndroBench 5 test with a new data set for device results.
As always, our storage test examines the performance for random reads and writes using a 4KB transfer size, and sequential reads and writes using a 256KB transfer size. These settings are chosen to match what actually occurs when an application performs IO operations. Only one IO thread is used, which again mirrors how applications are actually designed in order to reflect the performance that will be seen in real usage instead of reflecting potentially higher speeds that the hardware may be capable of, but that will almost never be encountered in an actual use case.
In Androbench 5 the OnePlus 3T tops the charts. However, it's important to recognize why this is, particularly where write speeds are concerned. Most smartphones we review have either 16GB or 32GB of internal memory. The OnePlus 3 has 64GB, and this OnePlus 3T unit is the flagship 128GB model. With flash memory, assuming that you have some density for a chip, increasing capacity is accomplished by increasing the number of chips. Because SSDs and other flash memory devices utilize parallel writes to improve performance, increasing the number of dies can allow for greater performance by increasing the number of writes that can happen in parallel.
With that in mind, the results from AndroBench actually aren't that shocking. In the write tests the 128GB model of the OnePlus 3T is well ahead of every other device, including the 64GB OnePlus 3. Read performance is also improved compared to the OnePlus 3, but not to the same extent.
The OnePlus 3T has the same dimensions and mass as the OnePlus 3, but one of the internal changes is an increase in the battery capacity from 3000mAh to 3400mAh courtesy of improvements in battery density. This represents a capacity increase of slightly over 13%, and given that the OnePlus 3T has essentially the same hardware platform as the OnePlus 3 one can expect to see a corresponding increase in battery life due to the capacity increase alone. Any improvements in SoC efficiency and energy optimizations in the software could lead to even further improvements.
To examine the degree of improvement in battery life that the OnePlus 3T brings to the table I've run our standard set of battery benchmarks, which includes our web browsing battery test, and PCMark battery.
In our web browsing battery test the OnePlus 3T lasts 16% longer than the OnePlus 3, which is slightly longer than you'd get by simply scaling to match the 13% increase in battery capacity. Of course, there's always a degree of variance, along with differences in power usage for different SoCs and different bins of the same SoC, and these factors play a role in the outcome of the test. In any case, the increase in battery capacity comes without an increase in mass or size, so it's really just an extra hour or so of web browsing without compromising any other parts of the phone.
PCMark's battery life test runs through the same mix of tasks that emulate what users actually do with a device, so it provides a good idea of how much active usage a user can expect from a device. In this test the OnePlus 3T lasts 10% longer than the OnePlus 3, which is in line with the expected improvement from the increased battery capacity when you factor in slight differences in device platform power and test variance. This increase brings the OnePlus 3T slightly ahead of Samsung's Galaxy S7 Edge, which is a good improvement when one considers that the OnePlus 3 was beaten by the significantly smaller Exynos version of the Galaxy S7.
Recently we have run into issues with charge time testing due to new restri ctions introduced in Android Nougat. To get around these I developed an app that we will use internally for measuring charge time. This app uses the same data set as our previous methodology, but accesses it using Android's system APIs rather than by polling the files on the disk directly. This means the results are directly comparable to ones obtained in the past, and the methodology should continue to work for the foreseeable future assuming the device's manufacturer hasn't broken the API, which unfortunately has been the case on some devices that we've tested internally.
The OnePlus 3T still ships with Android Marshmallow, so the old method of battery life testing could still be applied. However, I felt that this would be a good time to get the ball rolling with our new testing app, and I just wanted to make it clear to interested readers that we have a solution in place so we do not again encounter the issues with testing this that we did when reviewing the Pixel XL.
As expected, the OnePlus 3T takes longer to charge than the OnePlus 3, with the increase being strongly correlated to the amount that the capacity of the battery has increased. Dash Charge is still incredibly quick though, so I don't think users will have any complaints about the phone taking too long to charge. The only downside is that Dash Charge being exclusive to OnePlus means that you can only charge quickly using OnePlus's special charger and cable. I think most users end up using the block provided with their phone, but it does mean that you won't get fast charging speeds when borrowing someone else's charger, and if you end up having to buy another you can't buy a charger that supports USB Power Delivery or Qualcomm Quick Charge and utilize fast charging.
OnePlus phones ship with OxygenOS, which is OnePlus's user interface and apps running on top of Android Marshmallow. Right now the OnePlus 3 runs OxygenOS 3.2.8, and the OnePlus 3T runs OxygenOS 3.5.1. Going forward, OnePlus plans to treat the devices the same as far as software support is concerned, so the versioning should remain consistent between the two once the OnePlus 3 gets updated with a stable build to match the 3T. Until then, there are some software differences that exist between the two phones.
OxygenOS has typically been one of the less intrusive Android skins out there. The OnePlus 3 is definitely not the same Android experience that you get on a Nexus phone, but it's not really that far off. Most applications have the same appearance, with small additions made here and there as required. OnePlus also makes tweaks to areas like the notification shade and the launcher by adding custom screens or buttons to add additional functionality on top of what is already provided by Android.
Left: OxygenOS 3.5.1. Right: OxygenOS 3.2.8
OxygenOS 3.5.1 is a bit heavier with its customizations than previous versions. Many of these changes are purely aesthetic. For example, the color scheme in many core Android apps has been changed, but the actual layout of each application remains unchanged. Calculator is now white and yellow instead of grey and cyan, Messenger has been renamed to Messages and has some layout and color tweaks, and settings has been styled in a different color while also receiving some tweaks to accommodate settings for custom OnePlus features. I honestly don't see anything wrong with these changes, but they do feel a bit arbitrary, as it's not like OnePlus is implementing a unified color scheme across all the apps that have been changed. It feels like differentiation for the sake of differentiation.
One of the notable additions in OxygenOS 3.5.1 is a new weather application. Unfortunately, this app is a prime example of how the new permissions system in Android can still fail miserably. To use the app, you need to give it permission to use your location, to use your phone to make calls, and to access external storage, which in this scenario means to access data outside the application's own data folder. If you deny any of these permissions the app simply closes, and if you tell it not to ask again it actually crashes on start. As far as Android application development goes, this is a terrible way to design an application. The app should always work to some extent if permissions aren't granted, even if the app's only purpose in that state is to display something saying that it can't work correctly because it needs permissions.
I find this to be quite a disappointment, because I actually like the new weather app. It has a simple design, with some cool interactive features like adjusting the weather effects in the UI based on the movement of the phone. However, I don't understand why it needs access to the phone or to external storage, and I don't want to give it my location because I would rather set my city in the app so I don't risk it constantly polling my current location and killing the battery. I hope that in a future update OnePlus can re-architect the app according to proper Android development practices so it can function to some extent regardless of what permissions are given.
OxygenOS 3.5.1 also adds a voice recording app, which suffers from the same permissions issue as the weather app. Setting that aside, it's nice to see OnePlus filling in the gaps where Google and Android don't provide an app for a relatively basic feature that should exist. If I was making recommendations, I would ask for a video app in the next release, which is one of the other areas where Android still has no default solution.
One last thing I wanted to touch on is localization. Obviously when software is developed, it can be localized into different languages for different regions. In the case of devices from Chinese OEMs making their way to English-speaking countries, there can be areas where the translation of things can be questionable. Of course, this will often occur when translating between any two languages, but I can only speak to the cases where something is translated into English.
The reason I bring this up is because there are a few areas in OxygenOS where the verbiage used is pretty iffy, or a direct translation is put in without consideration of its length. For example, the recording application has descriptions of the AAC and WAV formats, and there are a number of oddities in the text. For the description of AAC recording I believe "can meet most of the scene" is meant to mean that the encoding is lossy but generally suitable quality, but I'm honestly not too sure. In the settings app there's a description for opting into telemetry, which is so long that it's actually truncated at the end. The label "The way clear recent apps" also has obvious grammatical issues, and it doesn't follow typical conventions for phrasing sub-menu names.
None of these mistakes present a usability issue in the OS, but they can make certain things confusing for users who don't have existing knowledge to help them figure out the intent of the text in a label or a description. I'm only bringing it up as something that OnePlus should keep an eye on going forward so the software improves. Improving the quality of localizations also helps in making the additions that OnePlus makes to the OS more consistent with the existing content provided by Google, which leads to a higher and more uniform level of quality.
The OnePlus 3 was certainly the best Android phone at the $400 price point, and it arguably had the best value for your money of any smartphone in general. The OnePlus 3T is a successor to the OnePlus 3, being better in some ways and equally good in all others. Normally that would make it a natural replacement for the OnePlus 3, and OnePlus seems to think so as they've discontinued the OnePlus 3 and replaced it with the 3T. However, these upgrades do not come for free, and the price of the phone has increased by a significant amount to accommodate the upgrades.
For the components that are shared between the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T, the experience and level of quality provided are equivalent between the two. The build quality is just as good, with the only change being the removal of the silver color and the introduction of gunmetal grey and gold finishes in its place. The display is essentially the same, although in my case I did see an even higher level of accuracy in the sRGB mode than I did on the OnePlus 3T, but it's impossible to say whether this is true of all units or if mine was just exceptionally good. The rear-facing camera quality is unchanged, although OnePlus advertises improved EIS during video recording. This is something that could easily be brought to the OnePlus 3 in a software update, so I'm unsure if it's really something that can be considered an advantage of the 3T. I also feel that the poor video quality on Snapdragon 820 devices means that it's not even worth discussing which ones have slightly better video quali ty than others.
The three aspects that have changed are the battery, the SoC, and the front-facing camera. For the battery the improvement is fairly obvious, with the 13% increase in capacity essentially giving you a corresponding 13% increase in battery life. Moving the SoC from MSM8996 to MSM8996 Pro makes the phone roughly 10% faster for CPU-bound tasks and 5% faster for GPU-bound tasks. These are fairly modest improvements, but it's important to also note that this is a high level perspective that doesn't take into account improvements in efficiency and fixes for errata that have been bundled into Snapdragon 821. Finally, you have the new front-facing camera which moves from an 8MP Sony sensor with 1.4µm pixels to a 16MP Samsung sensor with 1.0µm pixels.
With all these upgrades comes an increase in price from $399 to $439 in the United States, with corresponding increases in other currencies. $40 doesn't sound like an enormous amount of money on its own, but when a phone is initially priced at $399 it represents a price increase of 10%, which is not insignificant. The question is whether the improvements made in the OnePlus 3T are worth this 10% increase in price. This really comes down to the user and what they value in a device. For example, I didn't really touch on the front-facing camera because I think increasing the price of a phone to inflate the pixel count on the front-camera is not a good decision. I find myself asking how much cheaper the phone would be if it had retained the perfectly adequate 8MP camera from the OnePlus 3. The same is true for the SoC; Snapdragon 821 doesn't provide enough of an improvement in performance to justify increasing the price of the phone. The only change that actually does impact the user in a visible and meaningful way is the improved battery life.
All of that being said, I don't think the OnePlus 3T provides a poor value for the money. What's really in question here is whether the OnePlus 3 provided better value for its price. As I've used the phone and thought about the price I've been leaning toward that conclusion, as neither the SoC change nor the new front camera have meaningfully improved my experience, and the 13% larger battery is not worth $40 on its own. If you truly value having the best SoC and having more pixels in your selfies then the improvements may be worth a 10% increase in price for you, but for me I think it just pushes the price closer to the realm of flagship devices without much to show for it.
Ultimately, I still believe that the OnePlus 3T is a very good phone for the price, and it is a better phone than the OnePlus 3. However, if you were to offer me the OnePlus 3 and 3T at their original prices, I think I would just opt to get the OnePlus 3. I would definitely miss the longer battery life, but for me personally, the other changes don't add up to enough to justify the increase in price.
Source:
The OnePlus 3T Review
